Spider gears ?

No spider gears in a CV joint, just bearings.

Wow. Is your front diff locked? If it isn't, I don't understand how you blew that CV joint. What were you doing? I'm locked front and rear, and I've never blown a CV (knocking on wood).

Then you should stop driving in Parking lots.

How much HP does your Pathy have? Just wondering if it's one of the old 140 HP ones.

As you have read, it doesn't happen a lot, but it does happen. I have never blown a diff, but I ripped something up in my Rover's transfer case, which should've held out and let a diff or a half axle go first.

I imagine the halfaxle contacted the outer CV Joint, causing it to deform, and therefore fracture. the angle of the halfaxle (at full droop) and the wheel being turned, probably gave him the most extreme angle available, either binding up the function of the CV joint (they lose power as you move farther away from 0 degrees) or damaging the outer CV joint to the point of failure. I actually think the first is the case. try sticking a ball hex driver into a hex nut and turning it. first straight on, then at 10 degrees, then 2o, then 30, until you can't anymore. I am sure the joint was not made for such extreme angles. the Hummer, which has CVs capable of such angles have a 2 pivot CV in them.

also, having the front locked would've saved him. his left tire was (probably) not moving and his right was probably going close to twice the speed of the rear tires. when it came down, it blew. had he had a locker, it would've at least been going a similar speed to the rears, therefore not applying as much force as was needed to blow the CV.

Ok, It's fixed... I'll have some photo's up in a bit.

on the drive side of the half shaft there is a spider assembly. that is what i meant.

Ok,
The whole install of the half shaft took about 2 hours.

Tools required:
· 17mm socket for removing/installing the shock.
· 12mm for removing/installing the 6 bolts on the diff.
· Snap ring pliers
· 19mm for torsion bar bolt.
· 19mm box wrench for locking nuts.
· 6mm hex head wrench for hub removal
· Grease

The first thing I had to do was remove the hub. I just removed the 6 hex bolts, pulled the hub off to expose the snap ring.

Took the snap ring off and had to figure out how to remove the outer CV joint. I think the proper way is to drop to lower A-arm. What I ended up doing was just cranking down the torsion bars. As you can see from the photo the lower A-arm is in the way.

I lowered it as far as I could to get the best possible angle to take out the cv and install the new shaft.

Here it is removed.

Here it is installed through the hub not connected to the diff.

I then connected the other end to the diff.

I figured since I was taking apart the hubs, I ordered the Warn manual locking hubs and installed them.

Cranked the t-bars back up and I was done.

I would rate it moderately difficult but is all basically bolt on.

Thanks Stormy, it's good to know it can be fixed without dropping the lower arm. That would be a bear on a trail.

Could you post a closeup shot of the surface where the CV split ?

I'll get some better shots in a few minutes...

Stormy,
Good to hear you got your X fixed up. The Warn Hubs kinda look cool with your new rims. I'm just wondering where you picked up the hubs (did you get them at Autozone as well?), and how much they cost?
I'm going to have to check Ma Bell out with you and Matt when I get home (with my new Tires, of Course ).

I got the hubs at www.Elias4wdcenter.com . They were $120 to my door.